House of Representatives Committees

The Parliamentary Papers Series (PPS) is a hard copy, annually numbered and indexed set of the significant documents presented to the Parliament which either House has ordered to be included in the series. The Parliament, through the Joint Committee on Publications and the Presiding Officers, determines which organisations are entitled to receive sets of the PPS gratis. Recipients are generally only entitled to one set annually.

The series is available in two formats:

loose documents (called pamphlet copies), which are processed as parliamentary papers as soon as possible after tabling; are dispatched in economical parcels and not necessarily in numeric order; and

blister packs, which contain all documents for a calendar year, are dispatched when all its contents are available. This product may be bound by the recipient.

On 12 May 2005, the Presiding Officers wrote to the Chair of the Joint Committee on Publications, notifying the Committee of changes made to the distribution of the Parliamentary Papers Series (PPS), commencing on 1 January 2006. These involved tightening the eligibility guidelines for recipients of the PPS and ceasing the provision of the collated blister packs.

The Presiding Officers also sought the views of the Committee on potential further changes to the methods of providing the PPS.

In response to the request from the Presiding Officer, on 15 September 2005, the Joint Committee on Publications resolved to inquire into the distribution of the Parliamentary Papers Series.

The Committee invites interested persons and organisations to make submissions addressing the terms of reference by Thursday 20 October 2005. Please refer to our brochure called preparing a submission for more information.